VG 88846-4 – the very latest German standard for naval EMC cable glands. And the first product certified in line with it is – the PFLITSCH blueglobe TRI NM/Cr.
Today’s naval surface vessels and submarines are highly digitalised data centres that are subjected to the exceptional stresses of what is an extremely harsh environment. The demands made on cable entries and transits are high: they must provide protection against salt water and vibration, as well as electromagnetic compatibility, all properties of key relevance to safety on board a ship.
And in the naval segment of the marine industry, civilian standards simply don’t match up to requirements; the military sets its own, more stringent ones. In Germany, these standards are known as “Verteidigungsgerätenormen” (defence equipment standards), or VG standards, for short. And there are a great many of them. The standard applicable to EMC cable glands has just recently been significantly revised: the old standard VG 88773 has been withdrawn. Since July 2022, EMC cable glands that comply with the new test standard VG 88846-4 must be used in all new projects for the German Navy.
The first – and currently only – product approved according to this standard comes from PFLITSCH: blueglobe TRI NM/Cr with marine thread .
IP 68 instead of IP 56: more than the standard requires
EMC cable glands with a double cone that met the previous standard would have to be brought up to the standard of contemporary protection ratings by fitting them with sealing rings and heat shrink tubing. If errors occurred during assembly, the degree of protection provided would decrease. What’s more, shrink tubing is susceptible to ageing.
The new standard therefore demands state-of-the-art, smart cable glands that fulfil at least IP 56 – without heat shrink tubing. The first solution to be certified in line with this new norm is the PFLITSCH blueglobe TRI NM/Cr made of chrome-plated brass and equipped with a metric naval thread. By default, it offers more than the standard requires: namely an ingress protection rating of IP 68 up to 15 bar, otherwise IP 69.
Built-in, flawless EMC shielding
The time-saving, error-preventing ease of assembly offered by the blueglobe TRI product family with spring contact is a massive advantage, as bonding is guaranteed to be 100% tight and no longer needs to be checked. Thanks to the non-magnetic bronze TRI spring, the shielding is run from end to end without interruption. It provides built-in EMC protection for even better screening attenuation values and a higher current-carrying capacity – even strain relief up to class B.
EMC protection is essential particularly when it comes to state-of-the-art data communication systems. The naval cable gland from PFLITSCH has passed the tests stipulated for Cat. 8.2, the extremely demanding cable category for gigabit networks.
Made in Germany, first-class delivery capability
The RoHS-compliant naval cable glands have been developed and are manufactured entirely at PFLITSCH’s plant in Hückeswagen and are shipped from the company’s own small-parts warehouse. This means shipyards and suppliers can rely on a robust and fast supply chain. To enable designers to integrate PFLITSCH products into their designs right from the planning phase, they can download the 3D CAD data from the PFLITSCH CAD component library.
